UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

[SiriusHardware]

There was a big uniden / audioline type homebase called the KP Something or other

I'm thinking Uniace 300? Audioline version PT345? Or were you thinking of something else? The original President version looks to be the KP77.

There weren't really all that many UK spec home base radios, just off hand I can think of:

Midland 76-900 (quite a handsome radio) - Cybernet 134 inside

Fidelity 3000 home base - styling by Gerry Anderson (looks like), circuitry and performance similar to the dreaded Fidelity 1000 mobile.

Harvard H407 - Cybernet 134

Harrier CB-HQ - Cybernet 134

Grandstand home base - unique chassis as far as I remember

York 869 - not sure what was in that one.

Murphy CBH-1500 - unsure

Any more? remember, we're focusing on Post-1981, UK spec radios.

[SiriusHardware]

The really big giveaway for a Maxon chassis was the presence of a red TESTED label on the rear along with a plate with 'Made In Korea' and the month and year of manufacture marked on it. I never particularly liked Maxon chassis (which were found in mid range Midlands, Colts, etc) but I loved their habit of putting a date stamp on their radios.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by SiriusHardware

I'm thinking Uniace 300? Audioline version PT345? Or were you thinking of something else? The original President version looks to be the KP77.

There weren't really all that many UK spec home base radios, just off hand I can think of:

Midland 76-900 (quite a handsome radio) - Cybernet 134 inside

Fidelity 3000 home base - styling by Gerry Anderson (looks like), circuitry and performance similar to the dreaded Fidelity 1000 mobile.

Harvard H407 - Cybernet 134

Harrier CB-HQ - Cybernet 134

Grandstand home base - unique chassis as far as I remember

York 869 - not sure what was in that one.

Murphy CBH-1500 - unsure

Any more? remember, we're focusing on Post-1981, UK spec radios.

DNT, Was a very compact homebase, Forget the model number, Alas performance was what you would expect from DNT

Yeah the KP77.

[Radio Scotland]

I'm thinking the catswhisker radio was british made, Styled to evoke memories of homebrew crystal sets etc. And the electronic parts sourced from maxon.

I think the magpie auto scan was all british made, Advanced for its time, Blue Neon Channel Display. Command high prices now

[SiriusHardware]

Looking at the mid row of buttons I'm wondering if the 'Catswhisker' radio had selcall which was a really uncommon feature - it was an optional feature on a certain Belgian Marque. If it did have selcall then the 'Cat Call' label in that area would suddenly make a lot more sense.

I think the magpie auto scan was all british made, Advanced for its time, Blue Neon Channel Display.

I've heard of them, never seen one. Electronic channel selector which enabled it to have scanning when most of the first generation sets had elecromechanical channel switches.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by SiriusHardware

Looking at the mid row of buttons I'm wondering if the 'Catswhisker' radio had selcall which was a really uncommon feature - it was an optional feature on a certain Belgian Marque. If it did have selcall then the 'Cat Call' label in that area would suddenly make a lot more sense.

As far as i know it did, That's where my knowledge of them ends.

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by Radio Scotland

How about the CATSWHISKERS CAT CALL CW1580 ? Looked like it was cobbled together by your eccentric uncle in his garden shed

Here is a Catswhisker CW1580P on test, i think selcall is mentioned somewhere .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCBeBt2iexs

[SiriusHardware]

Good find, but annoyingly no view of the inside. Appears to have a Uniden style meter but they could just have bought those in. Interesting to see that the 'big speaker' (+PSU?) seen in other images is actually a separate (Optional?) unit.

[SiriusHardware]

Oh, I missed this detail from the introductory text.

reboxed DNT M40/LCL2740

Oh dear. It was doing so well.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by SiriusHardware

Oh, I missed this detail from the introductory text.

Oh dear. It was doing so well.

Yeah you read that and it instantly loses it's appeal. Imagine some guy in the 80's having one of them in his austin allegro, Must have felt like the most technologically advanced man on the planet

[Radio Scotland]

Some more info on the catswhisker


There are about a dozen versions of the Catswhiskers radios, including homebase, portable, mobile, LED-metered, tradition metered..

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by Radio Scotland

Some more info on the catswhisker


There are about a dozen versions of the Catswhiskers radios, including homebase, portable, mobile, LED-metered, tradition metered..

Weird that... in all the years ive been collecting CB radios ive never heard of the Catswhisker until this thread was started.

I know there are 1000s of CBs but this one being a 27/81 unit mystifies me , i might have to do a bit of digging to see if i can find a version for my collection .

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

Weird that... in all the years ive been collecting CB radios ive never heard of the Catswhisker until this thread was started.

I know there are 1000s of CBs but this one being a 27/81 unit mystifies me , i might have to do a bit of digging to see if i can find a version for my collection .

They're far and few between, Don't expect they sold in high numbers. The odd one pops up for sale now and then online

[SiriusHardware]

I actually worked in a radio and TV workshop through the whole of the original CB radio peak period so we got examples of just about every UK spec radio ever made through our hands at one point or another, and yet I too had never heard of them until Radio Scotland brought them up in this thread.

We saw almost everything ever made with a Cybernet 134 or 135 chassis plus the main UK spec Uniden chassis and a good helping of the small and medium sized Maxons badged as Maxcom, Commtron, Cobra (21FM) Midland (2001,3001,4001, 77-104, Portapack), Colt (355) and a few oddballs like the Fidelity 1000 and clones. One or two different but decent models like the Shogun (original 1980s model with two 5-LED meters), as well. But I never even heard of, let alone saw, a Catswhisker (Any model).

I might have to do a bit of digging to see if i can find a version for my collection

If you mean the models with Selcall then you ideally need two, otherwise you won't be able to play with that feature. With any luck, one of their other models used a more respectable chassis.

[Nickthedentist]

Just bumped into an older chap in a very battered (and customised!) Micra outside the Co-Op here in Didcot, with no less than 3 big aerials on his roof. I couldn't resist having a chat.

It turned out that two were decorative(!) but the other was indeed connected to a modern-looking CB. He told me there was still a lot to listen to in some areas of the county, but not a lot round here.

[Radio Scotland]

Catswhisker info link

http://radiopics.com/0.%20Info/CB%20...e/overview.htm

[SiriusHardware]

RS, thanks for the above. Interesting to see that they were still supported until relatively recently. (2004).

[defender]

The worst thing is I remembered the weekend before the 2nd, but completely forgot on the day.
I was going to go somewhere high up with a few cb's and see who was on and I have loads of cb's (NATO 2000, superstar 360, sommerkamp ft788dx and a fair few 27/81 radios) and a 9 ish foot whip for the top of my landy.
I also have a 100w helper and a 220w helper (I have too much cb type stuff)
I was gutted

[SiriusHardware]

Although this was a significant anniversary and maybe attracted more activity than most, there are a core of people who celebrate UK CB on the anniversary of its official introduction (Nov 2nd) every year, so put it in your diary for next year.

By tradition the channel used for the centre of activity on these occasions has always been the one whose number equals the number of elapsed years, so this year it was 40 leaving nowhere to go, except back to 1, next year.

I think it would be better for the anniversary activity to now find a permanent home on channel 14 because there are quite a few sets, mainly handheld, which only have 1, 2 or 3 or maybe up to 6 channels but almost always have channel 14 in their limited channel set - so it would be a way of always including them in the activity and might encourage a few people to go out on high hills and join the fun with 1 Watt or 100mW handhelds.

[ortek_service]

Did anyone ever have / use the (UK-designed / made?) Magpie Autoscan?

I think they were a bit of a Rolls-Royce of CB's (inc. price), and were apparently very good, as although they had the MC3357 NBFM-IF IC (with its indescribably-bad RF-Mixer, as R&EW magazine put it), they wisely only used its IF-amp / FM-DEMOD part, using their own external 1st to 2nd IF mixer.

I ended-up swapping the 10.7MHz 200kHz-wide ceramic 1st IF Filters for a 10.695MHz 8kHz B/W one in many CB's that had the MC3357, to make them receive just the selected channel rather than often the strongest of the 40 in these ''broadband boxes'! Including in my Brother's Binatone Route-66 (He bought back in '81 and still have), with it's rather proprietary PCB / chassis.

But even then, I much-preferred my later picked-up & fixed + still have, rather better Mustang-3000 that (like Amstrad's, Fidelity 2001 & Harvard HomeBase), used the PCMA002F board - Suspicious similar number to Cybernet PCMA001S in the later Nato-2000 Multi-mode (which could be internally-set to operate to UK 27/81 standard) 'export' model. So I always thought it was a later design by Cybernet, even though it looked rather different to the classic PTBM134 / 135 designs.

I always considered the Taiwan-built Uniden chassis, to be better performance than the Japan-built Cybernet chassis. And much easier to work on the PCB which used tracks fronm the front rather than the mass of wires to many points looms in Cybernet etc. On Uniden SSB models, the frequency could be set properly on all modes and was much more stable than Cybernet ones. With the Uniden 2830 '10m' one's SSB sounding just like FM, even if they did make the error of using the overload-prone MC3357 for FM-mode.


Probably the easiest to receive-overload chassis of the 'big-4' - Uniden, Cybernet, Maxon, was the not too well-named 'Great' - in Fidelity 1000, Sun, Cheiza and lots of other models. Where even the swap to a crystal 1st IF filter wasn't enough. And had been thinking of producing some decent RF-mixer replacement add-on boards for these, that could also be used in MC3357 designs.

I did later acquire a faulty Reftec-934, but was rather disappointed by its UK design / build quality. And could never get spares of seemingly custom Helical filters they'd used as had gone out of business. I think the Cybernet Delta-1 was a much better design (Out of the only 3? 934MHz makes/models)

I do also recall briefly having a Breakerphone to repair for someone. But I doubt many could be bothered with the hassle of installing these properly in a vehicle. Most mobile transceiver were used at home, as homebases tended to be rather expensive for good ones (And Fidelity-3000 or Murphy Homebase models weren't well regarded!) - hopefully on better PSU's than many early ones that couldn't actually deliver their stated 3A continuously (especially plastic-cased FKI's with 1A regulator IC & transformer that buzzed loudly even off-load, or all the Altai / re-badge ones with over-heating transformers)

Will have to remember to dig some out for another year, after forgetting about this 40th one.